This invention relates to a vent assembly for automotive vehicles and, more particularly, to a vented window assembly suitable for use in quarter window panels of compact automobiles.
The art of automotive passenger compartment environmental control systems is well-developed. Improvements have been made both in terms of heating and cooling particularly in view of the wide-spread adoption of air-conditioning and the present-day ability to provide effective sealing of automotive doors and the windows therein. However, these prior art systems suffer with disadvantages particularly in compact or two-door, five-passenger automobile applications. That is, essentially all air modification system elements are located forward of the vehicle at the fire wall position, including the system output vents. While these systems serve the driver and front-seat passengers well, they fail to effectively accommodate the rear-seat passengers, particularly in those two-door compact automobiles with fixed or permanently closed quarter panel windows.
These prior art systems rely upon a power-driven air volume or mass, which originates at the instrument panel or fire wall positions, to provide the heating, cooling and outside air venting functions. In order to accomodate the rear seat positions, the air flow must travel on the order of five times the nominal front-seat distance, and therefore necessitates considerable air velocities and nevertheless results in pressure and temperature drops in the rear seat positions. Air flow obstructions, such as head rests and the like, intervene to deflect, and reduce the velocity of, the driven air which further aggravates the problem of air distribution, and typically results in a random rear compartment air dispersion. Attempts to equalize the overall passenger compartment environment necessitates high or low temperature extremes at the system output elements provided on the instrument panel or firewall. Consequently, the comfort of the front seat passenger must be sacrificed in order to accommodate the rear seat passenger and undesired stratification compartment temperature differentials typically results. Further, these prior art systems require some form of relief of venting in order to achieve an overall effective air flow from the front to the rear portions of the vehicle compartment. This relief venting is not readily achieved in the case of two-door, five-passenger compact automobiles with fixed or permanently closed quarter panel windows.
These prior art disadvantages are particularly acute in the case of the compact automobiles because of the psychological factors affecting the rear seat passengers. That is, because of the initially cramped conditions coupled with little or no control over individual personal environment, the rear seat passenger must helplessly, if not claustrophobicly, rely upon, and is subject to, negotiation with the front-seat passenger occupants to modify his environment.
These and other disadvantages are overcome by the present invention wherein a vented window assembly is provided which facilitates, notably, individual air control in the rear seat passenger positions. The invention provides a flexible or adaptive unit assembly which is weather sealed in all modes of operation and which selectively provides intake, exhaust or closed system modes. The undesired effects of road noise which could otherwise be introduced during a vented mode of operation are substantially eliminated by the provision of suitable noise dampening or attenuation means. Accordingly, the present invention provides individual personal environment control which may be readily added to present-day air modification systems for automotive vehicles, thereby adding an additional dimension thereto.